Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 12.djvu/263

 9* S. XII. SEPT. 26, 1903.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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was just twenty-one years of age, she could not have been long on the stage at that period. She evidently did not leave the stage immediately, as I have an engraving of her by Bunbury dated the next year, 1780, in the character of a grenadier doing sentry-go with a musket on the outskirts of a camp. Underneath is "Nancy," but on the gable of a hut are her initials C. W. Her only son, Wright Edward Atkyns, who was captain in the 1st Royals, was born in 1780, and died unmarried 16 November, 1804. She soon after must have left the stage, as Lady Jerningham writes from Lille, November, 1784 :

"A great many people have taken refuge here, to fly from their creditors in England; among the rest a Norwich family and a Mrs. Atkins of Ket- ringham. She was a player, a friend of Miss Younger. You may remember to have heard of her, and he was always a great simpleton or else he would not have married her." ' Jerningham Letters,' vol. i. p. 9, and see note at bottom of p. 10. She survived both her only child and her husband, who died 27 March, 1794.

H. S. VADE-WALPOLE.

101, Lexham Gardens, Kensington, W.

JOHN GILPIN'S ROUTE (9 th S. xii. 170, 217). If we assume that John Beyer, whose shop was at the top of Cheapside, at the corner of Paternoster Row, and who died in 1791 at the age of ninety - eight, was the original of Cowper's John Gilpin, the date of the famous ride must have been 1740 or there- abouts. For if John were born in 1693 and were married at about twenty-seven years of age (which seems a fair supposition), his wedding would have taken place somewhere near 1720, and the " twice ten tedious years " of married life without a holiday would bring the eventful day to about 1740.

From R. W. Scale's map of Middlesex, pub- lished in 1756, it is plain that to get from Cheapside to " Merry Islington " John must have ridden along Aldersgate Street and Goswell Road as far as to the " Angel " corner. At that time Islington was a village out in the country, with two roads in it, Upper Street and Essex Road, which met in a fork (as they do to this day) at Islington Green, and then continued as one short road to the " Angel " corner. On arriving at the "Angel" John would take this short road and turn off to the right at the Green, and traverse Essex Road until he came to the old lane that ran between Highbury and Dalston the eastern portion of which is still called Dalston Lane, altho.ugh the portion that John rode along is now called St. Paul's Road and Ball's Pond Road. From this lane, at what is now called Dalston Junction

Corner, he would get into the High Road

between London and Cambridge, and after

that his route to Edmonton would be straight.

But there is a slight discrepancy in Cow-

Eer's account of the journey further on. He imself, of course, knew nothing of the story until Lady Austen told it him in 1782, and she only remembered hearing it as a child and could not recollect the rider's name; and either she or Cowper must have been some- what hazy as to the topography of Edmonton, for John is made to ride through " the Wash of Edmonton " before reaching the " Bell," whereas the " Bell " comes first, and the Wash, now covered with a bridge, is some little distance beyond.

The name of Cowper's hero was evidently taken from the old tombstone in St. Mar- garet's Churchyard, Westminster, " Here lies John Gilpin" an inscription which until some fifty years ago stared every passer-by in the face, and which must have been seen by Cowper hundreds of times when attend- ing Westminster School.

A propos of all this, P. M. and others may be interested to know that the famous " Bell " of Edmonton came, by bequest, into the possession of the Cprdwainers' Company in 1662, and, until railways took the place of the stage-coach, the "Bell" was a favourite posting-house on this much-frequented road. The old tavern was refaced about a century or so ago, but was pulled down in 1877, and its actual site is now occupied by a modern London gin-palace and a large pawnbroker's establishment, while its once extensive plea- sure grounds and stables are covered by a "Gilpin Grove," in which a hundred families or more are herded two or three families together in most of the houses. Three years ago, however, the Cordwainers' Company granted me the site of the old bowling-green for a parish hall, and this has now been built and, what is much to the point, is at length cleared of debt thanks to the fact that we have made the hall a sort of national memorial to John Gilpin, for when local resources became exhausted we appealed to lovers of John Gilpin for some outside help, and the British puolic, unable to resist J. G., sent us no less than 430. After this singular proof that John Gilpin still has a corner in English hearts, P. M. will not be surprised to hear that we are decorating the walls of the hall with old prints of the famous ride ; and, if he or any of your readers can put me in the way of adding to the collection, I shall be glad to hear from them.

Lucius G. FRY,

St, James's Vicarage, Upper Edmonton.,